


Allied

by Zoe_Dameron



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Betrayal, Broken Bones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Espionage, Explosions, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Violence, Sabotage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 22:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11389914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Dameron/pseuds/Zoe_Dameron
Summary: Finn betrays Poe.





	Allied

**Author's Note:**

> Psssh. You thought there'd be a H/C theme for Stormpilot and I _wouldn't_ show up?  <3

“ _Stars_ , what is that smell?!” Finn’s hand flew to cover his nose while the other desperately tried to waft away the air around his head.

Poe laughed, despite himself.

“You’re making it a bit obvious we’re not locals, man. Though I should have warned you about the fetid andev fruit. They prefer to bloom in conditions like these, I just hadn’t anticipated so many stalls would stock them. That’s on me, sorry.”

Shooting a pointed glare at Poe, Finn did his best to stifle his gag reflex as the two made their way through the dark, crowded marketplace. The Outer Rim moon was warm, oppressively so, but adapting to unique climates or meeting informants where they dictated was all part of the Resistance gig. Poe sometimes wondered if they should include “Must be willing to put up with bantha shit (literal and figurative)” on the recruitment posters.

Poe was two steps ahead of Finn when he felt a slight tug on his jacket, pulling him back. With the hand not covering his nose, Finn pointed to a shadowy area down the alley to the right of the main drag.

“What’d you say the informant looked like again?” he asked, words muffled through his hand. “Grey Twi’lek wearing a green jacket?”

Poe nodded. “The rendezvous’s ahead though. Might not have been him. Better to meet where he said to meet. Safer that way.”

Finn shook his head. “Looked like he was bleeding, Poe.”

“Are you sure?” Poe asked, reaching for his blaster.

“Pretty damn sure,” Finn whispered, reaching for his own blaster and motioning with his eyes for Poe to follow.

“Alright,” Poe sighed, “I trust you. Let’s find him.” Poe unclasped his weapon and followed his partner down the deserted and increasingly dark alley.

Their path seemed endless, twists and turns for long stretches but nowhere to pull off or exit. The stone walls loomed oppressively on either side of them, devouring any possible light from the marketplace they had just left. Poe felt a sourness growing in his gut as they ventured deeper.

“I don’t know, Finn,” Poe whispered when finally realized that he could no longer hear the noise of the crowds from the main thoroughfare. “Feels an awful lot like a trap…”

Ahead of him, Finn wasn’t slowing. If he had been listening to Poe at all he made no indication of it.

“Finn! Hey! Can you just – can we stop for a second? This is crazy. Even if this is our informant – _Finn_! _Where are you_ – ?” Poe desperately called after his partner who had just disappeared around another corner.

Without hesitating for even a second, Poe called out again for Finn, weapon drawn, as he rounded the corner after him.

Poe skidded to a stop when he saw Finn ahead of him, bordered on each side by a Stormtrooper.

“Hey, Poe,” Finn said with a smile before looking past Poe to something behind him. “He’s yours.”

Confused, Poe stumbled backwards into the waiting grip of the three Stormtroopers who had silently gotten the drop on him. He felt two of them grab his arms, wrenching them behind his back as the third moved to clap a pair of stun cuffs over his wrists.

“Finn, run!” he cried, throwing his head into the helmet of the Stormtrooper directly behind him, sending the Stormtrooper staggering back. Using the grip of the other two Stormtroopers against them, he tucked his legs underneath himself and swung backwards, pulling them into each other with a crashing and cracking of plastisteel.

Newly freed, Poe lunged forward, grabbing Finn’s hand and moving to pull him away to safety. “Come on! We have to get out of here! We have to –” Poe yelled, stopping himself when Finn held his position. “Finn, what are you –? _Come on_!”

In those precious wasted seconds, the Stormtroopers regained their composure and set upon Poe again. Poe’s mind flashed back to that horrific Jakku mission when he felt one behind him kick his leg out from underneath him, sending him crashing to knees. Two others returned to pull his arms up his back, twisting one arm the wrong way in their scramble. Poe heard the _snap_ a split second before the pain radiated up his arm in white hot bolts of agony, and he couldn’t help the scream that escaped his panicked lungs.

His temporary immobilization was all the Stormtroopers needed to totally subdue him. The heavy binders weighed Poe’s broken arm down at an awkward angle and every movement blurred the edges of his vision. Well, at least until one of them slipped a black cloth bag over his head and blocked his sight completely. Poe was moments away from expressing his indignation at the situation before the blunt end of a blaster against his temple knocked him out cold.

\---

He came to slowly, groaning from where they had left him sprawled out on the floor, arms still fastened behind his back. He tested his restraints briefly before his vision settled enough for him to see the bars of a cell that surrounded him, and he groaned at that, too. He eventually pieced together that they were on a ship, and that the ship was moving, but beyond that, they had left him locked up here alone.

Mustering what remained of his strength, he called out on instinct. He first and only thought was of his best friend, his partner, his…

“Finn!” he coughed, taking a deep breath before trying again. “Finn! _Help_! _Finn_!”

Moving to sit up on his knees almost knocked him out flat again, having forgotten about his fractured forearm until the pain came roaring back.

“ _Finnnn_! Finn, please! Help! Finn!”

His breathing was ragged, more a series of structured gasps than anything else, but Poe knew that if Finn was around that he’d save him. He’d get him out of here, wherever ‘here’ was, and help him get home.

The expression of relief that flashed on Poe’s face as Finn walked through the ship’s door was bright enough to be seen from space, though it didn’t last long.

“ – and I’m sure you can hear his endless bantha shit now,” Finn said into a holocommunicator, a sly smirk in place of a look of concern. He was again flanked by two Stormtroopers who stood silently by the door as Finn approached Poe’s small cell.

“Let me see him,” came a posh, female voice on the other side of the holocommunicator. Finn crouched down in front of Poe’s cell and turned the device around. A shiny Stormtrooper stared back at him, leaning in to the visual to try for a more complete examination.

Poe knit his brow, looking up at Finn for any kind of clarification. Why wasn’t he getting this door open? Overpowering the guards? _Saving him_?

“F-Finn, wha –”

“Very good, FN-2187,” the posh voice announced, “it appears you’ve delivered exactly what you promised. We welcome you back to the First Order with open arms.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Finn’s smile grew wider, his eyes crueler.

“I’ve sent the coordinates of the nearest Star Destroyer, _Annihilation_ , to your onboard computer. We expect to see you within the standard day cycle. Nice work, FN-2187. That will be all.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Finn repeated as he closed the communicator.

Swallowing his fear, Poe tried again. “Finn, what is going on? The First Order? Help me out, buddy, because from where I’m sitting, this looks –”

“Bad for you? Yes, you do catch on quick.” Finn rose to his feet and handed the communicator off to one of the Stormtroopers posted by the door. “I’m taking you back in to custody. I helped you escape from the _Finalizer_ because you were a useful alibi to endear myself to the Resistance. You’ve served your purpose, so I’m returning you to where you belong.”

Poe couldn’t help the way his jaw dropped, couldn’t help the way tears threatened to spill down his cheeks. This was _Finn_. He would never – _could_ never! – betray the Resistance like this. Could never betray _Poe_ like this. They had plans, Poe and Finn! Finn had only moved half of his belongings into Poe’s room before they left on this mission. To think that he was still working for the First Order this whole time? It made less than zero sense.

Still, Poe was having these thoughts from his knees behind the bars of a cell while Finn stared down at him and joked with Poe’s enemy.  

“Finn, _please_ ,” Poe pleaded, pushing down the embarrassment as he heard his own voice cracking, “just – just tell me what’s going on here.”

Finn shook his head and let out a small chuckle before reaching to a panel to the right of Poe’s cell. Poe felt the shocks course through him before he registered exactly what was happening, his body convulsing and sending him smashing back down onto the electrified cell floor.

Within seconds it was over, though of course it felt like much longer than that to Poe. He curled in on himself, trying to steady his distressed breathing.

Finn knelt down in front of the cell again, reaching through the bars and grabbing Poe forcibly by the shirt, pulling Poe up to face him.

“It’s FN-2187. Always has been, always will be.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“ _I don’t care_.”

He shoved Poe back as he released his grip on Poe’s shirt, another unnecessary cruelty to add to the ever-growing list.

From his position on the floor, Poe watched the two Stormtroopers behind Finn nod at each other, followed by the one on the right activating some kind of device on the holocommunicator. Finn smiled down at Poe one more time before he joined the other two First Order goons as they exited the room.

Poe remained where they had left him, laying on his side in a daze while his silent tears collected in a puddle beneath his face.

\---

Hours passed, maybe. It could have been minutes, it could have been days. Stars could have been born and then burned themselves out, it didn’t matter to Poe anymore. Finn had been a significant reason why Poe stayed in the fight. Conviction and belief in a cause is one thing, but it doesn’t always get you through the harder days. Those days required more than hope. More than a nebulous love for your friends, for your command, for the billions of life forms all depending on you to win this fight.

Those harder days required someone like Finn. No, not someone _like_ Finn. Finn himself. Finn who was pure and good and wonderful and who Poe had loved and trusted without a second’s hesitation.

As he lay there on the floor feeling badly for himself, Poe refused to believe Finn had betrayed him.

As he heard blaster fire and shouting beyond the door, he still refused to believe it.

And as Finn came bursting through the door – alone – with a desperate and concerned look on his face, Poe could almost physically feel the tides turning back in their favor.

“Poe! _Stars_ , I’m so, so sorry for all of this! Are you alright?”

He trusted Finn but still kept his distance, pushing himself up and back against the far wall of the small cell as he studied Finn’s face, searching for answers.

“Kriff, those bastards sure are thorough,” he whined, looking Poe over, careful not to touch him. “Poe, can I just –”

“Explain what the fuck is going on?” Poe bit back as he yanked himself away. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Finn sighed, guiltily. “Of course, Poe. I owe you that and more. But I’ve loaded this ship with active explosives so we need to get into an escape pod like, _right now_ , before we smash into the _Annihilation_ , okay?”

Poe eyed him cautiously for an extra-long moment before nod-grunting at Finn and inching himself around as delicately as possible so Finn could uncuff him. Finn undid Poe’s restraints as softly as he could, considering the circumstances.

“Is it… is it broken?” he whispered, ashamed.

Poe barked out a laugh, annoyed. “You couldn’t hear the deafening crack of it as the sound echoed through the alley?”

“No. I’m sorry, Poe.”

Finn helped Poe to his feet carefully, taking on the pilot’s weight as they made their way to the nearest escape pod, passing the ship’s cockpit Poe saw was absolutely stacked full of explosives.

Setting Poe down gently onto one of the small pod bunks, Finn locked the door shut and ran to the control console to enter coordinates for Yavin IV. The pod disconnected with a jerk, and both men were flung backwards as the pod aligned their trajectory and the engines engaged. Finn scrambled to Poe’s side to help him lay back against the bunk’s strangely copious number of pillows. He reached for something above the bunk and Poe tensed only slightly, relaxing when he saw Finn pull down a medkit.

“I know you’re mad at me, Poe. But can I see your arm? And also…” he trailed off as he examined Poe’s fresh bruising and split lip, “…uh, everywhere else, I guess?”

Poe cradled his broken arm and held it close.

“Start talking, Finn.”

Finn sighed and nodded, dropping down to his knees in front of Poe who was desperately trying to ignore the feelings that stirred within himself at the sight of Finn looking up at him with those beautiful deep brown eyes.

“My being a spy for the First Order is pretty believable I guess, if you think about it. Stormtroopers don’t really defect directly into the arms of their enemy, so. An opportunity came up and Resistance leadership devised this plan where I come back to the First Order with a, uh, ‘ _gift_ ’ and a head full of a year’s worth of Resistance intel. The First Order would be foolish to pass up an opportunity like that, which they didn’t, of course.”

Poe scoffed.

“Basically, you were the bait. And I was the switch. Or rather, the ship set to auto pilot and loaded with active explosives on a crash course for a prime Star Destroyer was the switch. Once Captain Phasma trusted me enough to give me coordinates, all I had left to do was to maintain the ruse long enough for the other Stormtroopers to send the second confirmation to her. You know, just in case. They didn’t think I knew about the second confirmation, which is stupid. I was the best in my division. Their first and continuing mistake is doubting me.”

“Careful, Finn. We might run out of bacta strips if you end up with a broken arm of your own from all that patting yourself on the back.”

Finn’s cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink as he smiled bashfully up at Poe.

“Of course, of course. You’re right. The mission was successful but you got really injured in the process. I’m sorry, Poe.”

Poe couldn’t help the hint of the smile that pulled at the edges of his mouth, so he gently presented Finn his broken arm to direct Finn’s attention elsewhere.

Finn’s expression turned serious as he opened the medkit and set about splinting and immobilizing Poe’s forearm, gently applying numbing agent to help Poe manage the pain.

The two sat there in silence while Finn worked before Poe finally spoke up.

“So. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, this was General Organa’s plan, if you need to verify what I’m saying. And honestly, I wouldn’t blame you at this point. But I needed you to believe I betrayed you. I’ve been gone for so long that they’d be looking at your reaction intensely. Couldn’t risk a lingering glance or a pulled punch. There was also the risk that the plan would fall apart and we’d end up back on the Star Destroyer, which –”

“Plausible deniability. I’ve given up information under torture before.”

“First of all, that wasn’t your fault. But yes, basically. I’m sorry, Poe. I really am.”

“You mean the entire galaxy to me, Finn. The idea that you could just turn on me like that, I mean… it was rough, you know?”

“I do, Poe. I absolutely do. And it will never happen again, I promise. You mean the entire galaxy to me, too. More, even. Whatever’s larger than the galaxy, that’s how I feel.”

When Finn was done, Poe pulled his newly-splinted arm back and gave himself a minute to step away from the situation and look at it objectively, in a place without hurt feelings and hurt… everything else.

“It’s a good plan, Finn,” Poe replied, diffidently. “But you’re also a moof-milker who is not going to hear the end of this for an extremely long time. And you’re telling Dr. Kalonia what happened here. I’m not taking the heat for this med center visit.”

Finn nodded in agreement, eyes downcast sympathetically as he moved to embrace Poe.

“And another thing, dammit! ‘Lingering glances’? ‘Pulled punches’? I’ll have you know that I’m great at undercover work but also an amazing actor. I once played General Ha’m-lett in a New Republic play. You should’ve heard the praise about my performance. Critics were struck dumb with awe. So, keep that in mind next time you think of pulling this bantha shit again.”

Finn smiled back at Poe, fidgeting with the sleeve of his jacket. “Okay, Poe. Sorry again.”

Maybe it was the come-down from the adrenaline or narrowly-dodged imprisonment and death, but something stirred within Poe, causing him to bend down at the waist to lean towards Finn. He took the time for a single, conscious breath before titling forward the rest of the way and pressing his lips against Finn’s. His heart soared when, after a heartbeat, Finn pushed in to reciprocate, the two of them locked together in a kiss that melted away all of the hurt and sadness and betrayal and questions and doubts that had been building up to that moment.

It took everything within Poe to finally pull away slightly, eyes closed in contentment. “Oh, Finn,” he pleaded, wounded, “don’t do that to me again, okay? My heart can’t take it.”

Finn pulled back in concern, worry painted across his face. “I’m sorry, I just thought – I thought you wanted to, _you know_ , kiss me, I just –”

Poe laughed. “No, no! Kissing, yes! More kissing. I meant no more very believably selling me up the river to the First Order. Let’s replace all of that with kissing instead, okay?”

Finn smiled up at Poe, delicately grabbing Poe’s uninjured hand and crawling into the bunk next to him.

“Works for me.”


End file.
